Spiritual Eyes Ministry  

Date: February 18, 2008

Devotional: Healing Love

Scripture Verse: Hosea 14:4

I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely:

for mine anger is turned away from him.

HOSEA 14:4

Sometimes, we get so caught up in our lives with work, hobbies, school, etc. that we start to fall off as Christians. When I say this, I mean, we end up putting other things first in our lives instead of God. In doing so, we hurt our relationship with God.

There are many reasons why this may happen. We may lack a close relationship with God because of our ignorance. We may have never fully learned about God or fully placed our confidence in Him. We may have gotten angry with God for something he did or didn’t do in our lives. Or, we may have misplaced faith in false gods. Our idolatry can take on various forms….money, cars, work…and so on.

And…even though some of us may have slid away, time to time, from faith; the Lord has made us a promise which says He will still love us. All we need to do is turn to Him again for forgiveness. In Isaiah 54:10, the Lord says, “For the mountains may depart and the hills disappear, but even then I will remain loyal to you. My covenant of blessings will never be broken,” says the Lord, who has mercy on you. God continues to love us through good times and bad, and he doesn’t stop loving us if we don’t meet the expectations he may have for us.

God is Love, and His love is very different from human love. God’s love is unconditional, and it’s not based on feelings or emotions. He doesn’t love us because we ought to be loved or because we make Him feel good; He loves us because He is love. He created us to have a loving relationship with Him, and He sacrificed His own Son (who also willingly died for us) to restore that relationship.

When we find ourselves separated from God, we must ask Him to forgive us for our double-mindedness. For some of us…sometimes, part of us wants to believe Him, but fear and doubt may have drawn us away from His love. We don’t want doubt to destroy our love for God. We must constantly ask God to heal us from the things that would separate us from Him.

God’s love is a wonderful love that does not count wrongs. We must ask him to help us to live in that love everyday.